﻿FIELD AND FOREST. 35 



fire over him, which being kept well supplied by the Lemangs with fresh 

 fuel, soon completes his destruction and renders him in a fit state to 

 make a meal of." It is curious to find that a method employed by ex- 

 isting savage tribes, to master the rhinoceros, should have been applied 

 in pre-historic times to the vast Mastodon. — -F. A. A. in Science Gossip. 



On Collecting Hymenoptera, &c— Some of your correspon- 

 dents encumber themselves with more bottles, tins and boxes than 

 there is any necessity for ; the simplest, most efficient and least ex- 

 pensive plan is the following: — Laurel leaves, as Mr. Blackett states, 

 are the best, gathered in spring, but not too young, if pounded in a 

 mortar instead of cut up merely. A good-sized bottle of the bruised 

 leaves will be good for killing Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, in fact, all 

 insect life during the year. I use mine now in December which were 

 gathered last June. The most convenient collecting-bottle is an or- 

 dinary two ounce or four ounce wide mouth, with turned back rim, 

 and tight fitting cork. In the centre of the cork pierce with a borer a 

 hole, in which a glass tube will fit, open at both ends. I use a one 

 drachm tube bottle, the bottom of which I cut off by notching with a 

 file, applying a red hot ring of wire, and drop a little water over it ; 

 this cracks it round tolerably straight. Hold the edge in a gas flame 

 for a few seconds to melt off the sharp edge, tie a piece of muslin 

 round the bottom, and cork the mouth : fit this tube tightly into the 

 cork of the larger bottle, which fill half or three parts full of bruised 

 leaves. This forms a cheap and convenient double bottle. The 

 larger insects are easily put into the large bottle, while the tube is 

 kept for the smaller or any rare species. They are killed in a few 

 seconds, and will keep in capital condition for setting for some weeks, 

 or even months if needed. It is well, however, not to keep them too 

 long. With this single bottle, I think, all a collector's requirements 

 are met. Chloroform, cyanide of potassium, sulphur, and ammonia 

 are all nuisances, and can be very advantageously dispensed with. — • 

 E. W. in Science Gossip. 



How Typhoid Fever is Spread. — E. Frankland communicates ' 

 to Nature (April) the following remarks on the outbreak of typhoid 

 fever, which occurred at Lausen, near Basle, Switzerland : The source 

 of the poison was traced to an isolated farmhouse on the opposite side 

 of a mountain ridge, where an imported case of typhoid, followed by 



